Welcome Baby Sam!

Today my little sister Melissa gave birth to her second child, Samuel Paul. I am so excited for her! He is too cute! Visit Melissa, Tim, Alex and baby Sam at Meljo blog.

Anxiety Before A Play Date and Maizie Teaches

This morning I could not get up. All I wanted to do was sleep. I hate days like that. Once again it was gloomy, rainy and the darkness brought me no motivation. Maizie nudged me. I woke up and she put my iPhone about two inches from my eyes and said, "Incoming message from Melissa".

My sister Melissa texted that she was coming into town and wanted to meet Maizie and me for lunch. Very nice! I had plans with friends for a play date. I sent Melissa a text invite and she agreed.

Suddenly I was nervous. Next the questioning...do I tell Maizie so early in the morning that we have a play date? Or will the anxiety of waiting push her over? Do I tell her that Aunt Melissa and Alex are going to be there too? Can she handle the excitement? I looked at her for signs of an episode coming on. Would she be able to handle the smells and the noise of the food court? I counted the hours and the minutes until it would be time to leave.

I made no decisions and took my shower. During my shower I continued with the analysis of how to go about the morning. Can you believe I actually think that my choices and decisions will determine whether or not Maizie gets sick? Despite all these years I still fall back into this pattern of behavior. Obsessing over something that I have very little control over. It is exhausting and futile.

I decided to wait and tell Maizie a few hours before we were to be there. She seemed calm and agreed to dress, brush her teeth and picked out her favorite Hannah Montana CD for the car. Susie called confirming our play date. So far so good.

At one point Maizie began to look pale and sleepy. I felt a wave of dread but refused to give in. Laying down for a bit tends to help but she refused. I figured we were doomed for another half day of hiding indoors.

Finally, it was time to go! Alex arrived wearing her very special winter hat that has not left her head in weeks. A new type of security blanket? Very cute nonetheless.I take a quick photo of Maizie and Alex in front of the gum ball machines.

The girls all played together for a while. Maizie refused to join in but sat with me and seemed content enough. I visited with Susie, Janeen and Melissa. Maizie listened and began asking for lunch. Fair enough.
After lunch the girls played as Maizie sat patiently waiting. She complained about the noise a few times and began requesting that we leave. We lasted one hour and fifteen minutes which is good. After saying our goodbyes we took off to run some errands where Maizie insisted she not be made to get out of the car. That makes running errands a tad challenging.

The last two days I have tried to go to the store and have been unable due to Maizie refusing to leave the safety of the car. Tonight when she asked for a certain special food I reminded her why we did not have it. With Joe in Jersey getting to the store is a problem.

Later we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house where Maizie began an impromptu language lesson with Alex and Christian. Too cute!
As you can see Maizie was only able to keep their attention for a few minutes. Next they practiced Yoga.

This is the 'relaxation pose' that did not last long enough.

Text Messaging, Agility and Slugs

Maizie wanted to get a hold of her Aunt Melissa today to ask her what her Uncle Tim's favorite color was. First we tried texting and then Maizie tried to leave a voice message. I don't think that worked out the first time. Maizie was confused on when to begin talking. Tonight Maizie said,"Mom...will you please send a text message to Melissa again!" I thought it was so cute to hear Maizie asking me to text a message. I did not know she even remembered the term 'text messaging'. I had tried teaching her how to do it a few days ago on the cell phone. She thought it was super cool to write notes using the phone. A tad bit too complicated for her to master at this point. But, hey...some adults have no clue how to text so she is one up on at least understanding what it is and how it is done. I am a text addict. Mindy and I text one another several times a day. Joe always says, "Why don't you just call her?" He even changed my cell phone plan so I can text all I want by proving to the cell phone company I text more than I talk.

Maizie called Mel again tonight and left a brief and to the point message. Then, we moved back to texting. As we were texting Mel finally called. Maizie answered and asked her long awaited question. Despite Tim's card being sealed and ready to mail she pursued in finding out Tim's favorite color. I think the answer was green. Maizie felt great that her mission for the day was finally complete.

Earlier today Maizie and I walked one of her cards down to John and Cindy's. Maizie walked Darwin and I walked Stella. Maizie and I are having fun training the dogs. Soon we are going to try making some home made agility obstacles. We ordered a book on how to teach agility. It should be an interesting challenge. Maizie also ordered her own dog breed book. We did not get to look through it today but will do so soon.

Poor Joe was up sick all night last night. I think it had something to do with the several super mint Oreo cookies he ate but he does not agree. Anyway, he slept most of the day. He certainly deserved a day of rest after caring for me! By three Maizie and I were antsy to get to the library. I am ready to drive but I could not carry the bucket of books we had reserved. Luckily, Joe was feeling better and went to the library with us to act as our muscle man. Maizie had reserved some books on slugs and apple orchards. The apple books were hard to find. I think every teacher in the city must have them checked out for the fall. Since our sidewalks are crawling with huge, nasty slugs we decided to learn a bit more about them. The only thing we really knew from our own observations is that they are big and super sticky! If you hold one the slime is almost impossible to wash off.